2007-04-13

C# + DWM -> pretty!

I was reading a nice, if slightly dated, set of articles about the new features in Windows Vista, including ars technica's rundown. This article mentions that not much of the functionality avaliable in the Desktop Window Manager (Aero to everyone else) is going to be exposed to third parties, which I think it a great shame.

However, quick investigation reveals that, at least, the thumbnaling stuff has an API.

B#'s blog shows how to get at the DWM previews in .NET, and the MSDN magazine shows how to create pure glass windows.

A quick combination (and about an hour trying to work out a decent layout algorithm) gives:

I've actually put a FDWMlist.net binary (sig) up, for once, even though it's generally worse than the code I normally hide. :)

Any key to refresh. Any use may invalidate your Reliability Index. You have been warned.


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